Cheney: “Look, just tell him that you couldn’t find anyone, but that you think you could probably just do it yourself.”

Miers: “There’s no way I can pull that off.”

Cheney: “He’ll go for it, I swear!”

Katrina.

• 100 Hours after Stormfall - a useful summary of events from The Anchoress.

• Coverage - Austin Bay recommends the New Orleans Times-Picayune for its outstanding coverage, including this article on the devastating loss of legal documents -- real estate records dating back to the early 1800s, and the loss of offices, files and other documents critical to civil and criminal legal cases, making for a beaurocratic nightmare as New Orleans' citizens struggle to rebuild.

• Disaster Relief - Katrina Help WIKI [mirror-site] has a lot of resources; the bloggers at Little Green Footballs provide an extensive list of charities; Mark Shea recommends the Mercy Corps; Amy Welborn has another good list explaining what you can do to help (see her blog for ongoing updates as usual).

• If you live in the SouthEast and approximately 300 miles of the disaster area, HurricanHousing.org is coordinating offers of free housing to hurricane evacuees. (One of the few organizing projects by MoveOn.org that I'll support). Operation: Share Your Home is a similar project, run by "concerned Louisiana citizens who have joined together to provide an immediate response to the tragedy that has struck our beloved state."

• The Knights of Columbus has pledged a minimum of $2.5 million in financial assistance and will match any funds beyond that donated to the Knights of Columbus Katrina Relief Fund over the next 60 days.

• Lee Scott, President and CEO of Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, pledged $15 million to relief efforts, along with the promise to establish "mini-Wal-Mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane. Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water will be given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need." This display of generosity even while its stores in New Orleans were being looted and ransacked -- one wonders if this might earn a nod of grudging approval from the radical left? (Via Cries in the Night).

• Karen W. Woods, Director for the Center for Effective Compassion at the Acton Institute, reminds us that when it comes to relief "It's in the details":

  The first thing to remember is the principle of subsidiarity. The idea is common sense: Nothing should be done by larger and more complex organizations which can be done as well by smaller, simpler organizations closer to the need. In other words, leave the complex problems to the complex organizations; let the simpler groups take care of the more basic needs. . . . Local charities have been meeting local needs for decades. The ABC Pregnancy Resource Center in Lake Charles, La., delivered baby formula and baby clothes from their own program to a community center that is housing 2,500 Katrina refugees, with as many as 4,000 more expected this week. This community charity had the resources on hand and simply transferred them to the place of need. "I don't even have to ask my board," said director Nete Mire.

  But the ABC Pregnancy Center in Lake Charles (email: abcpregnancycenter@copper.net, 866-434-2797) needs more formula, diapers, baby wipes, and baby bath products. They are trying to help serve 116 children under age 2 at the com munity center. The nonprofit Tutwiler Clinic in Tutwiler, Miss. would immediately use financial donations for prescription drugs for refugees. Dr. Anne Brooks says such donations would also help them replace household items for those in their community who lost homes. Both these programs are listed in the Samaritan Guide, www.samaritanguide.com, a reporting site for privately funded charities that serve individuals.

  The Lake Charles Catholic Diocese is accepting donations for Katrina refugee assistance specifically in that community.

  The principle of subsidiarity not only offers a more efficient means for relief of basic needs, it offers a component that no bureaucracy could provide, one that only individuals can provide: a human connection. Only an individual can provide the hope and encouragement that is as necessary to the well being of these refugees.

• A strange place to build a city. Kevin Miller (Heart, Mind & Strength) posts a good geographical representation of NOLA's location with respect to Lake Ponchartrain and the Gulf.

• Will New Orleans Recover?, by Nicole Gelinas. City Journal Vol. 15, No. 3, Summer 2005:

  The truth is that even on a normal day, New Orleans is a sad city. Sure, tourists think New Orleans is fun: you can drink and hop from strip club to strip club all night on Bourbon Street, and gamble all your money away at Harrah’s. But the city’s decline over the past three decades has left it impoverished and lacking the resources to build its economy from within. New Orleans can’t take care of itself even when it is not 80 percent underwater; what is it going to do now, as waters continue to cripple it, and thousands of looters systematically destroy what Katrina left unscathed? . . .

  Nicole describes NO as a city having "long suffered from incompetence and corruption", illustrating the necessity of moral renewal of local government, concurrent with economic and social rehabilitation.

• Oswald Sobrino (Catholic Analysis) takes issue with the "Hurricane Finger-Pointers", the Bush-haters who lay the blame for the chaos in NO at the feet of the President. Sobrino, a native New Orleanian, describes his hometown as "the city that did not evacuate in the face of a Category 5 hurricane", and concurs with Gelinas' report:

  The scandalous ineptness and stupidity shown by local and state officials in failing to enforce and implement a true evacuation of the most vulnerable is, unfortunately, a continuation of the long history of misrule that has marked my native city for decades. Remember that fact when you see local and state officials lashing out at the federal response. Their lashing out is an attempt at distracting from their own obvious responsibility for a self-magnified disaster.

• Peter Sean Bradley (Lex Communis also has questions about New Orleans and its tradition of local governance, noting "hundreds of school buses in dirty contaminated water. School buses which were not sent to the Superdome on Saturday to evacuate those without transportation." What happened?

• From Captain's Quarters and related bloggers, several good posts on the failure of local government, pointing out that 1) New Orleans had the opportunity to address the issues concerning emergency evacuation of a city nearly one year ago, in the advance of Hurrican Ivan in the Gulf; 2) that New Orleans' city government actually possessed a detailed hurricane disaster plan that it neglected to follow. Likewise, Americans for Freedom provides "a documented list of state and local failures" demonstrating why one cannot lay the blame for this on the federal government and the President.

• Michael Novak finds that a look at the 2000 census data on New Orleans provides A Fuller Picture to the troubling images we're seeing on television.

• From Arthur Chrenkoff:

  Arguably not as stupid and inane as some of the quotes following the Asian tsunami (see here and here), one of the biggest natural disasters in American history has nevertheless provided many with a delicious opportunity to bash President Bush and the right side of the politics and the country generally. Here's the selection of some of the choiciest commentary . . .

  (More quotes here).

• Genevieve Kineke (Feminine Genius) relays a story of order amidst the chaos, which she describes as : "heart-rending because of the effort to create order as a sign of civility, which seems not to have mattered in the Big Picture. Of course, it does matter -- to those in this small place, to those struggling with despair, and to God." Pray that they get help.

• 64-year old African American "social justice advocate" Randall Robinson claims that "black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive". As opposed to, say, white hurricane victims, who possessing average human metabolisms can average 30 days without eating.

• Fr. Jim Tucker admonishes those who foolishly ask What Did They Do to Deserve a Hurricane? -- meanwhile, Senior Kuwaiti Official did exactly that, proclaiming: "Katrina is a Wind of Torment and Evil from Allah Sent to This American Empire."

• "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog," says the author. "In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested."

• Jimmy Akin brings his moral analysis to bear on a number of issues involving "disaster ethics" that have arisen in the past week. In part 1, he discusses "price gouging" and "the possibility, in situations of urgent necessity, of taking another's property without it being the sin of stealing"; in part two, moral situations which might justify the taking of another's property; in part three, what things you are allowed to take in such situations and what other rules there are concerning taking them".

• Pope/St. Gregory the Great on Tribulation, Grieving the Dead, and Caring for the Living, from Teresa Polk (Blog By The Sea).

• Finally, if I may be permitted to close with a bit of humor and advice -- Sean Penn, STAY OUT OF NEW ORLEANS. Go back to Hollywood, and let the real (i.e, trained) rescue crews do their job.

What kind of community does the Internet build?

. . . perhaps the Internet does build "community," but what kind of community does it build?

It seems to me that, even in "community," the Internet is inherently isolating, depending as it does on corrupt notions of freedom and selfhood. The Internet may be the greatest tool of the modern age, but it comes with all the problematic dualities that this age and its products have had--both for good and bad, for weal and woe, for liberation and enslavement. Yet many today are unable to understand both the boon and the bane of the Internet, that it can, even while creating community, radically undermine community, and thus foster isolation.

The Internet is isolating because it subtly convinces people that fellowship and community can be had with only as much commitment as a click of a button. If I get bored, or frustrated, or angry, or hurt online, I can just log off, or connect to a different forum. The Internet is the ultimate voluntary society. And the voluntaristic impulse embedded in online interactions is destructive of real community. It erodes trust, and renders impossible the collective building of a shared history and a shared set of ideals.

The church, as a community, must do more than simply bless such an idea of community with tacit acceptance. Rather, the church ought to challenge it by living an authentic alternative. In preaching, worship, catechesis, and mission, the church has the opportunity to subvert the voluntaristic model of community many people learn from modern life, and from its most effective pedagogue, the Internet. The church can preach the good news that God in Christ established a community transcending our voluntarism. The church can teach about the meaning of the Gospel to an information-saturated people. And in mission with and among these same people the church can live out a constancy and patience that will not "log off" when times are difficult and relationships are strained.

Daniel M. Griswold - "Beyond the Hype: The Internet and the Church" Perspectives: Journal of Reformed Christian Thought January 2003.

Never had a problem with tap water, anyway.

. . . Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline, even at today's high gasoline prices; depending on the brand, it costs 250 to 10,000 times more than tap water. Globally, bottled water is now a $46 billion industry. Why has it become so popular?

It cannot be the taste, since most people cannot tell the difference in a blind tasting. Much bottled water is, in any case, derived from municipal water supplies, though it is sometimes filtered, or has additional minerals added to it.

Nor is there any health or nutritional benefit to drinking bottled water over tap water. In one study, published in The Archives of Family Medicine, researchers compared bottled water with tap water from Cleveland, and found that nearly a quarter of the samples of bottled water had significantly higher levels of bacteria. The scientists concluded that "use of bottled water on the assumption of purity can be misguided." Another study carried out at the University of Geneva found that bottled water was no better from a nutritional point of view than ordinary tap water.

. . . Bottled water is undeniably more fashionable and portable than tap water. The practice of carrying a small bottle, pioneered by supermodels, has become commonplace. But despite its association with purity and cleanliness, bottled water is bad for the environment. It is shipped at vast expense from one part of the world to another, is then kept refrigerated before sale, and causes huge numbers of plastic bottles to go into landfills.

Of course, tap water is not so abundant in the developing world. And that is ultimately why I find the illogical enthusiasm for bottled water not simply peculiar, but distasteful. For those of us in the developed world, safe water is now so abundant that we can afford to shun the tap water under our noses, and drink bottled water instead: our choice of water has become a lifestyle option. For many people in the developing world, however, access to water remains a matter of life or death.

"Bad to the Last Drop", by Tom Standage. New York Times August 1, 2005.

Pope Benedict and Harry Potter

Pope Benedict and Harry Potter @ The Ratzinger Fan Club.

A roundup of the relevant posts and articles for those interested in this truly momentous and controversial issue of international, nay, universal proportions.

Michael Foucault and Militant Islam

Heidegger had his infatuation with National Socialism. Sartre with Communism; and Focoult with . . . Radical Islam? -- Alas, according to Kevin Anderson and Janet Afary's Foucault and the Iranian Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2005). The Boston Globe has the story:

When Foucault went to Tehran, he was France's dominant public intellectual, famous for a critique of modernity carried out through unsparing dissections of modern institutions that reversed the conventional wisdom about prisons, madness, and sexuality. In his most famous work, "Discipline and Punish," Foucault argued that liberal democracy was in fact a "disciplinary society" that punished with less physical severity in order to punish with greater efficiency. More broadly, his counternarrative of the Enlightenment suggested that the modern institutions we imagined were freeing us were in fact enslaving us in insidious ways. . . .

Foucault was virtually alone among Western observers, Anderson and Afary argue, in embracing the specifically Islamist wing of the revolution. Indeed, Foucault pokes fun at the secular leftists who thought they could use the Islamists as a weapon for their own purposes; the Islamists alone, he believed, reflected the "perfectly unified collective will" of the people.

The Iranian Revolution, Anderson and Afary write, appealed to certain of Foucault's characteristic preoccupations — with the spontaneous eruption of resistance to established power, the exploration of the limits of rationality, and the creativity unleashed by people willing to risk death. It also tied into his burgeoning interest in a "political spirituality" (by which he meant the return of religion into politics, a suspicious phenomenon in rigorously secular France) whose rise was then still obscured by the Cold War. These preoccupations made Foucault both more sensitive to the power of political religion, but also more prone to soft-pedal its dangers. In his articles, Foucault compared the Islamists to Savonarola, the Anabaptists, and Cromwell's militant Puritans. The comparisons were intended to flatter. . . .

There is a long tradition of Western intellectuals going abroad to sing the praises of revolutionaries in distant lands and finding in them the realization of their own intellectual hopes. But the irony of Foucault's embrace of the Iranian Revolution was that the earlier intellectuals who had sung hymns to tyrants tended to share a set of beliefs in the kind of absolutes — Marxism, humanism, rationality — that Foucault had made it his life's work to overturn. Rather than pronounce from on high, Foucault sought to listen to what he took to be the authentic voice of marginal people in revolt and let it speak through him. In practice, this turned out to be a distinction without a difference.

The philosopher and the ayatollah, by Wesley Yang. The Boston Globe June 12, 2005.

Herbert on Heideggar

Did you know Franklin Herbert -- most popular for his SF novel/series Dune -- wrote a novel loosely-based on the philosophy of Martin Heideggar? It's called The Santaroga Barrier.

The Heideggerian philosophy blog Enowning relays the story and a brief critical review. For those who aren't amused and/or impressed by Herbert's literary exercise, try browsing a copy of Heidegger's 1927 Sein und Zeit ["Being and Time"] next time you're at a bookstore, and imagine rendering it as fiction.

Sudoku.

Sudoku Clarification - Eamon Fitzgerald provides some background on a logic-game that's captured my interest as of late. It was introduced to me by a friend who plays it every morning. "Better than coffee," she says. I'm not sure I'd make the same comparison, but it is enjoyable and -- warning! -- potentially addictive.

Memorial Day - May 30, 2005

Their service came not as a burden but as a duty. The Daily Demarche on the origins of Memorial Day:

In 1918 Moina Michael penned "We Shall Keep the Faith" in response to John McCrae’s "In Flanders Field" (both poems can be found at the end of this post) launching the idea of wearing a poppy on the 30th of May in remembrance of our fallen warriors. While Memorial Day has existed as a federal holiday since only 1966, the practice of honoring America’s war dead dates to at least the Civil War . . .

Also in the post, details on the petition to move Memorial Day back to the 30th of May. (Seems like a good idea to me) .

Via Michelle Malkin):

Legacy.com has set up a moving tribute page to honor service members who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company set up the site free of charge and launched it in March. The Guest Book sections are must read. Well over 19,000 Guest Book entries from readers have been posted since the site opened.

God & Man on the Frontlines, Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of the American Soldier, on religion in the military and the necessity for a 'faith-based warrior code':

NRO: What does honor mean for the American on the battlefield?

Mansfield: Honor on the battlefield results from living by a code that rescues the warrior from barbarism and elevates the profession of arms. It means understanding soldiering as a spiritual service as much as a martial role. Honorable soldiers are devoted to the moral objectives of their nation in war, are willing to lay their lives on an altar of sacrifice, are courageous in subduing the enemy yet compassionate to civilians and prisoners, are devoted to a godly esprit de corps, and are eager to master the art of arms by way of fulfilling a calling.

NRO: How important was it that the Iraq war be addressed in theological just-war terms?

Mansfield: It is vital for a government to establish the morality of a war before sending soldiers into battle. The traditional just-war concept has to be satisfied. Soldiers don’t want to fight simply to defend a nation’s vanity or to support a corrupt vision. They want to know they are doing good. This is essential for them and for the nation that is going to welcome them home again. I have talked to hundreds of soldiers during the research of this book. Almost every one of them mentioned his or her need to believe in the goodness of their nation’s purposes in war.

And this interesting background to the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal:

NRO: Is Abu Ghraib a symptom of a non-faith-based warrior code?

Mansfield: The Abu Ghraib scandal has a faith backstory. The chaplain who was at Abu Ghraib during the scandals was told not to be in the way but to let the soldiers come to her. There was no moral presence and little spiritual influence during the time of the scandals. Chapel attendance was low and many soldiers later said they did not even know who the chaplain was. When that unit was replaced, the chaplains of the new unit were told to be present at prisoner interrogations, at shift changes and in the daily lives of the soldiers. The entire atmosphere changed. Chapel attendance reached into the hundreds and the prison became a model operation. This makes the case for continuous moral influence upon soldiers at war and for a faith based warrior code as a hedge against future abuses.

The Commanders - National Review Online May 27, 2005. Jim Lacy profiles General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other officers in our Armed Forces, countering the stereotype of "cold, unfeeling officers who callously send young soldiers out to die while sitting safely in the rear":

Those with no familiarity with America’s warriors might say they just like fighting and killing. Those people have never spoken to an officer who has been in a hard fight. They have never heard the cracking voice as he relates the difficulty of looking at people, whether enemy or ally, killed as a result of his orders. They have never heard the anguish of a leader replaying for the thousandth time the loss of one of his own. They did not hear an armored company commander answer a question about how he felt about having his soldiers rebuild schools after fighting to seize Baghdad literally days before. He said, "I cannot tell you how great it feels to be able to stop killing and start helping people." Such is the overwhelming compassion of those who fight our wars.

Lexington Green (ChicagoBoyz) would like us to become acquainted with Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith -- "the first and only Medal of Honor recipient in this war, so far. He died on 4 April 2003. His sixteen men were attacked by over 100 Iraqi troops . . ."

Smith not only died heroically, but lived and led with intense professionalism. He trained his men hard, caring only for their lives and not whether he was popular. His life was an example self-sacrificing leadership which everyone in America should know about.

The news media would prefer to treat such men and their lives and sacrifices as "not news" -- or as mere numbers in a body count which can be publicized to defeat the cause they died for.

To them, a lie about a Koran in a toilet is news.

A Medal of Honor for a heroic American soldier, husband and father, leader and warrior, is not news.

What is important is not what is reported in the MSM. What is reported is not all the news there is. Seek it out. Be aware. The Internet has destroyed their monopoly.

Never trust these people. They lie by commission, and even worse by omission. What they choose not to talk about is where the real news is.

You can read more about him here.

Opening the Gates of Heaven - blogger Blackfive explains the meaning of TAPS:

When Taps is played at dusk, it has a completely different meaning than when Taps is played during the day. No soldier really wants to hear it played during daylight. For when the bugle plays Taps in the daylight...that means a soldier has fallen . . . There is a belief among some that Taps is the clarion call to open the gates of heaven for the fallen warrior and letting them know to "Safely Rest" . . .

For those who wish to convey their appreciation for those in service to our country, Blackfive also provides a list of organizations who "work dilligently to support our military personnel in many different and positive ways."

Hugo Schwyzer, "a progressive, consistent-life ethic Anabaptist/Episcopalian Democrat" learning to love the uniform after encountering a young soldier at a gas station:

. . . it brought back memories of the mid-1980s, when I was a freshman at Cal and participating in often-violent anti-ROTC demonstrations. (The ROTC building was actually burned down at one point, and no, I had nothing to do with that!) But years ago, I heaped my share of terrible verbal abuse at many a young cadet. I sprayed more than one young man with spittle as I railed on about whatever the issue was at the time (I think it was opposition to the Contra war in Nicaragua.) I overturned tables, ran from campus police, and took part in a variety of small acts of criminal destruction of ROTC property that seemed (at the time) to be enormously brave and today seem to me to be colossally juvenile. Trust me, folks, if I seem gentle today, it's an act of will and a gift of grace that have made me so. I could be a vicious hothead when I was younger and filled with more testosterone.

I wonder if I owe some sort of collective amends to the military. I don't know how the young men at whom I yelled and whom I called names (unprintable here) reacted to what I did some twenty years ago when I was a teenager. I can't imagine it was easy for them to remain stone-faced while I -- and my fellow upper middle-class self-righteous radicals -- directed apoplectic rage their way. Today, I think what I did back then was wrong and pointless. Alas, at eighteen I was at an age when I was indeed "often in error, and never in doubt." I'm ashamed of my past behavior, even though I haven't hurled profane opprobrium at any one in uniform since my last protest, which was fourteen years ago at the start of the first Gulf War in January 1991. . . .

In my early years (teens/20's) I shared a similar conception of our military as Hugo, and while never having gone so far as to verbally abuse a ROTC cadet, I confess there are things I've said in print in those days that I'm certainly not proud of. So I would like to extend my thanks to Hugo for his courage and honesty, and if I may second his words of remorse.

Today's roundup goes out to all of our brave men and women serving our nation in all branches of our Armed Forces. And especially to my young brother Nathan, US Navy, currently serving aboard the U.S.S. Kearsearge. We miss you, God bless!

Re-Thinking Iraq . . .

There is a part of me that still is and will always be against the Iraq war. However noble the ends, the means will always be wrapped in a cloud of moral ambiguity. I remain, in every sense of the word, conflicted. I remember in the early spring of 2003, empowered by the heady idealism of a young activist, I committed myself to the cause in which I so emphatically believed in. Feverishly, we organized against a war we felt was unjust, immoral, illegal, and destructive. Those were times of a bygone age, times when we could still afford to believe in a world free of hatred, violence, and – yes – war.

Not quite even realizing it, it seemed as if we had become perennial protestors, angry at the world but helpless to change it. By opposing and resisting the “system” at every turn, we thought we could change it. Looking back, I think we were wrong.

Our goal, naturally, was to stop the war before it started (or perhaps we were just being naïve). As millions throughout the world flooded the streets in solidarity, it seemed – if only for a brief instant – that we might succeed.

On January 30, 2005, I saw something which would shatter any remaining illusions that opposing war in Iraq was the only moral position to take. Checking the news headlines online in my apartment in Jordan, I saw heart-wrenching pictures of thousands of Iraqis lining up, braving terrorist threats, to vote for the first time in their lives. These days, it is truly rare to be overwhelmed by hope but overwhelmed I was. In a hundred years, I expect – and I pray – that future generations will look back at January 30th as a historic moment, a moment that would forge the identity and aspirations of a people. For more than five decades, the Arab people have been denied their freedom by their own leaders as well as by Western powers, the latter fearing that free elections would lead to hostile bands of nationalists, leftists, or, now, Islamists coming to power.

The very thought of Iraqis voting after the unceremonious toppling of a most brutal dictator was both subversive and revolutionary. Millions of Arabs throughout the region, saw the same images on their television screens via satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya. For those who dared comprehend the moment, the wall of Arab autocracy was being broken down before their eyes. . . . READ MORE

Rethinking Iraq: Time for American Muslims to Support Iraqi Democracy, by Shadi Hamid. Muslim Wakeup! May 28, 2005.

Goodbye, Papa.

So, "Christ has opened the doors" to Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. Curiously, I find myself moved by the experience of watching the passing of our Holy Father, but not particularly saddened or distraught. He has run the good race, fought the good fight, lived a full life of great service to Christ and his Church -- and he himself seems content to go when the Lord calls him.

Of course I will miss him, like all those faithful Catholics (and other Christians as well) who consider themselves blessed to live under his pontificate, but I know as well that he will be going to his eternal reward. Fr. Fessio, via Insight Scoop, offers some good advice on this matter:

The Pope, like all of us, is mortal. And like all of us he was created for eternal joy in heaven. If this is the moment God calls him to himself, we should all rejoice and pray that he will be rewarded for his heroic labors for Christ, the Church, human dignity, and the world. The achievements of his long and fruitful pontificate are too numerous and varied even to make a selection. But he certainly fulfilled the prophetic role of the Vicar of Christ and of every bishop and priest: to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in season and out of season.   His successor? It will be a surprise. The Holy Spirit will guide the choice. Speculation is a harmless indoor sport; but it is not a good use of one’s time.

According to the New York Post the Pope was able, with the help of his secretary, to write a note:

"I am happy. You should be as well. Let us pray."

EWTN has an excellent special feature on The Pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

Also, for those who are intrigued by this whole process, Catholic blogger Domenico Bettinelli Jr. has a post on Papal Election and Succession - What happens when a pope dies?

Pat Buchanan Doused With Salad Dressing

"Stop the bigotry!" the demonstrator shouted as he hurled the liquid Thursday night during the program at Western Michigan University. The incident came just two days after another noted conservative, William Kristol, was struck by a pie during an appearance at a college in Indiana.

After he was hit, Buchanan cut short his question-and-answer session with the audience, saying, "Thank you all for coming, but I'm going to have to get my hair washed."

The demonstrator, identified by authorities as a 24-year-old student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, was arrested and faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. He was released on a $100 cash bond, pending his April 14 arraignment.

"He could have faced a felony assault charge, but Pat Buchanan decided to not press that charge," university spokesman Matt Kurz said.

Source: Associated Press April 1, 2005.

Seems to be a trend . . .

Earlham student hits Neocon Pundit with Pie

RICHMOND, Ind. -- A pie in the face didn't silence conservative pundit William Kristol during a speech at Earlham College.

A man who later was identified as a student at the private Quaker college jumped onto the stage and splattered Kristol with the pie Tuesday night about 30 minutes into a speech about U.S. foreign policy.

Members of the audience jeered the student as he walked off the stage, then applauded as Kristol wiped the goo off his face with a paper towel and said, "Just let me finish this point," the Palladium-Item reported.

The student was suspended and could face expulsion following a disciplinary review, Earlham Provost Len Clark said today. . . . Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard in Washington who was chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, finished his speech after he was hit by the pie and then took questions from the audience before spending 30 minutes talking with students and others who gathered at the edge of the stage.

Earlham is a liberal arts college of about 1,200 students that is well-known for its peace studies program.

Source: Associated Press March 30, 2005.

Attempting to disrupt a speech in such a manner is usually a good indication that you lack the knowledge and ability to best your opponent in a debate. Had Kristol's liberal critic to engage him during the Q&A session, he might have actually accomplished something.

Congrats to Bill, for finishing his speech with dignity, thus depriving the prankster of his goal and winning the respect of the audience. Not an easy task for a neocon speaking at a Quaker institution!

* * *

Further Commentary from Ruth Holladay ("Pie Hit Conservative Speaker but Missed Mark" IndyStar April 3, 2005)

Medlin and his small band of student supporters, meanwhile, are left with egg on their face. They've come off looking like spoiled and yes, silly, babies unwilling to tolerate a perspective different from theirs -- and this at a Quaker school founded on the Friends' tradition of inclusiveness and "respect for the consciousness of others."

The circumstances behind Kristol's presence at the eastern Indiana liberal arts school make this incident worthy of reflection. Kristol wears several hats, but the one that upsets Medlin, according to a statement he released Friday -- "Why I Threw the Pie" -- is Kristol's role as co-founder and chairman of the Project for the New American Century. The nonprofit promotes America's role as a world leader backed with a strong military. . . .

According to the account, Newell Pledger-Shinn, 24, an Earlham College graduate and assistant to Earlham President Doug Bennett, had proposed the idea of inviting Kristol with the hope that "On campus, where our mission is committed to truth wherever that will lead, I wanted us to model serious, respectful, challenging dialogue about things that matter." The pie-throwing incident seems to have subverted any impression that liberals are capable of intelligent debate:

Pledger-Shinn was "shocked and horrified" by the pie-throwing. "We had invited Kristol, hoping that Earlham students, being passionate, idealistic and articulate as they are, would give him a run for his money." But not a physical attack.

The college leadership concurs. Earlham issued a statement condemning the pie-throwing, although some faculty have asked for tolerance for Medlin -- who has been suspended indefinitely. Others on the faculty questioned why a pacifist school would welcome Kristol.

Still, a noon pro-pie-throwing rally Friday drew only a half-dozen or so of Medlin's supporters from among the 1,200 students. Despite Medlin's statement, saying he wanted to answer questions, he did not return phone calls Friday from his home in Lynn.

But the fact that another student at a Michigan college Thursday smeared conservative Pat Buchanan with salad oil, and cited Earlham, shows Medlin has had an impact. Sadly, it's about as substantial as cream pie.

One of my readers -- wow, I actually have readers? -- disputes the account, claiming:

Uhh..dude? Not only does the AP account NOT say that other students jeered the pietosser, but they didn't. They LAUGHED, because it was funny. Earlham students throw pies and fruit and all sorts of stuff at Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, or whatever chickenshit neocon comes to speak. Ann Coulter was so scared her knees were shaking. I ahppen to know, as I was THERE.

Several observations:

1. The quote was directly lifted from the AP Press. I see the original link no longer works, so so here's another: "Members of the audience jeered the student, then applauded as Kristol wiped the pie from his face and said, "Just let me finish this point," the Palladium-Item reported. Of course, I wasn't there either, so we'll leave this as a case of "he said, she said."

2. More importantly, nice going, assaulting a woman. Regardless of whether she's Ann Coulter -- and I'm no more a fan of her than I assume you are -- your crude and immature behavior toward her is a real credit to the liberal cause.

3. I'm amused the by the subsequent salad-dressing dousing of Pat Buchanan at Western Michigan University. Pat Buchanan is a paleoconservative -- and as such, happens to be a bitter critic of the Bush Administration AND William Kristol, in short, the furthest thing from a neocon. The pranksters should have given him a hero's welcome for his unwavering criticism of the war.

Nat Hentoff: "Judicial Murder"

Via I. Shawn McElhinney of Rerum Novarum, Nat Hentoff weighs in on the murder of Terri Schiavo, calling it for what it is:

For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.

She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists.

Among many other violations of her due process rights, Terri Schiavo has never been allowed by the primary judge in her case -- Florida Circuit Judge George Greer, whose conclusions have been robotically upheld by all the courts above him -- to have her own lawyer represent her. . . . READ MORE

Terri Schiavo: Judicial Murder Village Voice March 29, 2005.

Net Hentoff, who was a friend and biographer of Cardinal John O'Connor, describes himself as a "Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing pro-lifer" and is heralded by others as "the last honest liberal". As such, he is something of a curiousity on the usually militantly pro-abortion Village Voice. You can find a collection of his other articles here.

So much for the defense of Terri Schiavo being a sole manifestation of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Warnin' the Moolahs

Warnin' the Moolahs - Bush-haters often make fun of his Texan drawl and pronounciations, branding him an ignoramus. Alec Rawls (Error Theory) has a different take on the President.

New York Public Library's Image Collection Now Online

The New York Public Library's collection of prints, maps, posters, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, sheet-music covers, dust jackets, menus and cigarette cards is now online (digitalgallery.nypl.org). If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too.

So far, about 275,000 items are online, and you can browse by subject, by collection, by name or by keyword. The images first appear in thumbnail pictures, a dozen to a page. Some include verso views. You can collect 'em, enlarge 'em, download 'em, print 'em and hang 'em on your wall at home. All are free, unless, of course, you plan to make money on them yourself. (Permission is required.)

Source: The Public Library Opens a Web Gallery of Images, by Sarah Boxer. New York Times March 3, 2005.

Save the . . . Gay Penguins?!?

Gay outrage over penguin sex test BBC News. Feb. 14, 2005.

Radek Sikorski interviews Paul Wolfowitz

Interview with Paul Wolfowitz, by Radek Sikorski, former deputy minister of defence for Poland and director of the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute. Prospect Magazine | November 23, 2004. A good discussion of U.S.-Iraqi affairs and the broader context of the war on terrorism.

Fight Club: The Return of Hobbes "Hobbes is reborn as Tyler to save "Jack" (a grown-up Calvin) from the slough of un-comic despair." From Metaphilm.com, which "absorb, filter, review, and interpret cinema for your entertainment and enlightenment." (For treatment of other films (including Spider Man II) click here).

Tim Blair on "Karl Rove's Evil Plan"

Democrat congressman Maurice Hinchey, speaking on CNN, persists with the idea that Karl Rove devised the fake Rathergate memos.

"Using contemporaneous reports and several eye-witness sources", Tim Blair claimes to have "reconstructed the events of last August at Evil Rove Headquarters, located many miles beneath the earth’s surface . . ."